John Pogacnik's post yesterday morning inspired me to make a rare weekend visit to Conneaut harbor. I got there around 11:00 AM. There was a little shorebird movement for about an hour, the afternoon brought sunshine and people with dogs. I stayed until 2:00 PM. Luckily I didn't leave earlier, because at ~1:30 PM a kettle of 45 BROAD-WINGED HAWKS appeared. They were joined by some turkey vultures and bald eagles, which were probably locals. Seems late for BW hawk migration. Another unexpected late bird there was a male Am. wigeon. Besides the harbor, I also searched the township park and nearby residential streets for songbirds. Other Conneaut highlights were: great egret, black-bellied plover, 5 semipalmated plovers, spotted sandpiper, 4 semipalmated sandpipers, 6 least sandpipers, WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER, 13 dunlins, Bonaparte's gull, 2 great black backed gulls, 2 willow flycatchers, 2 e. kingbirds, 2 warbling vireos, red-eyed
vireo, 5 purple martins, a few bank swallows, cliff swallow (scarce migrant here), yellow warblers, black-throated green warbler, Am. redstart, c. yellowthroats, hooded warbler, and 5 Baltimore orioles. The rest of the afternoon, I noodled my way southwest towards Orwell marsh, stopping here and there to do some OBBA2 atlasing. I was mostly looking for grassland birds including upland sandpiper, which once again I failed to find in Ashtabula Co. In Denmark Twp. were e. wood-pewee, blue-winged warbler, ovenbird, savannah sparrow, indigo bunting, and bobolinks. In Orwell Twp. I was atlasing on Dodge Rd. when I saw the MISSISSIPPI KITE. This is a small road in rather ordinary habitat beside Rock Creek. These are the kind of places nobody would ever bird at if not for the Atlas! My next stop was Orwell marsh. Birds there included green heron, an ad. bald eagle, spotted sandpiper, red-headed woodpecker, Acadian flycatcher, great crested
flycatcher, warbling vireo, red-eyed vireo, wood thrush, Am. redstart, scarlet tanager, rose-breasted grosbeaks, and Baltimore orioles. I left Ashtabula Co. and headed towards home at that point. At Shenango WA in NE Trumbull Co. a quick stop yielded e. wood-pewee, e. phoebe, warbling vireo, e. bluebird, prothonotary warbler, rose-breasted grosbeak, and Baltimore oriole. Back in Mahoning Co., I stopped at McGuffey Wildlife Preserve in Coitsville Twp. It was 7:50 PM by then. An Am. woodcock was slow-walking and bobbing right on McGuffey Rd.!! I shouted at it to get off the road, then a motorcycle came by and almost ran it over. It flushed back into the high grass. Also in that area I found great crested flycatcher, bobolinks, and e. meadowlarks. It was a good end to a very interesting day.........Craig Holt, Lowellville
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